The genius of iTunes shuffle

Following Alex Ross' article (see below) I decided to see what the "shuffle" feature would do with my collection. I tend to listen to my own playlists, and to lean heavily on half a dozen or so, so there are large swaths of my music collection that I've probably never actually ever listened to since ripping.

The result is fun: some weird segues, but more often than not the program makes interesting choices (is it completely random? I have a hard time believing that it is), and inspires those "Hey, I haven't heard that in ages" moments. A pleasant change even from one's own music programming.

Update 1/12/2005: The thread on iPod, the shuffle, and interesting ways to listen to music continues in:

• Wired News on iTunes shuffle
• Smart playlists
• Spreading iTunes sharing
• If Proust had iTunes
• Hypertunes
• What should be after the iPod shuffle?

[To the tune of Lynyrd Skynyrd, "I Aint The One," from the album Millienumium Collection.]

Comments

[Victoria]

And now, this: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/26/technology/circuits/26ipod.html?8hpib

[CappuccinoJoe]

I thought the same thing about the shuffle in iTunes. I'm usually really critical about everything Apple has been doing lately because I think they've been getting more hype than they're worth, but listening to music in iTunes on shuffle is extremely enjoyable.

I'm not sure what the formula is but Windows Media Player doesn't get it. I find myself constantly skipping over songs I don't feel like at the time, and Real Player is annoyingly predictable, but iTunes, I can listen to for hours. And with each song be amazed at how perfectly the list suits my mood.

too bad iTunes freezes all the time and takes up a bunch of processing space otherwise it'd be perfect.